LISBON, PORTUGAL (AP) – A large cargo ship was drifting near the mid-Atlantic Azores Islands yesterday after its 22 crew members were evacuated due to a fire on board, the Portuguese navy said.
Shipping in the area was warned that the 200-metre-long Felicity Ace, carrying a cargo of vehicles, was adrift, Portuguese navy spokesman Commander José Sousa Luís said.
A Portuguese navy ship was on its way to check whether the fire in the hold was still burning and whether the cargo ship was in danger of sinking or causing pollution, Sousa Luís told The Associated Press.
The ship’s owner is seeking an ocean-going tug, but the Felicity Ace is unlikely to be towed to a port in Portugal’s Azores Islands because of its size, he said. The crew were taken by helicopter on Wednesday to Faial island on the archipelago, about 170 kilometres away, and are staying at a hotel there. None of them were hurt.
The ship was sailing from Emden in Germany to the port of Davisville in the American state of Rhode Island.
